//------------------------------//
// Chapter Four: Falling Down 
// Story: Starcrash 
// by Blarghalt 
//------------------------------//

She emerged from the room and was immediately pulled to the side, dragged under the counter by Scourge. Before she could protest, she saw the dragon raise a finger to its mouth, telling her to shush. Starcrash looked down the counter; Rainbow Dash and Far Out were also 

A round of knocking came at the door. Starcrash threw the dragon's grip off and peeked over the counter, looking at the opaque door. Truth Seeker and Red were and both sides, arguing with each other in shouted whispers.

"How did they find us so quickly?!" Truth Seeker moaned. 

"Calm down!" Red assured. "Your mom never announces when she's going on vacation! They probably think she's still here!" 

"And?"

"And!"

Red ran over to the War Room, going inside and shutting the door behind her. A green light flashed from under the door, and a second later a new white pony with a light brown mane opened the door. On her flank was a cutie mark of a pink smoothie. 

She trotted over to the door, gesturing for Truth Seeker to duck behind the counter as well. She complied, smushing herself between Rainbow Dash and Far out as Red opened the door.

Standing there was a yellow pegasus, wearing a black suit, sunglasses, and wide-brimmed back hat. His expression was even more stonefaced than Red's. 

"Hello," he began without asking. "Ms. Seeker? Sweet Seeker?" 

"...Yes?" Red lied. 

The pony reached for his glasses, taking them off and tucking them into the front pocket of his shirt. He reached into a pocket, taking out a picture of a very familiar pony with a rainbow mane. "Do you know who this is?"  

Red feigned ignorance. "Lightning Burst, I think it was?" 

"Rainbow Dash. Have you seen her? She is under investigation. We have reason to believe she is guilty of treason, and a danger to herself and her friends." 

The general had made her an outlaw.

Red did her best to play out the rest of the conversation, playing dumb as the pegasus detailed Dash's false crimes in detached, sterile terms. 

Dash's shock turned to anger. The general was willing to pull her name through the mud! And that was just because she was famous! Everyone else? He'd just make them...vanish!

She couldn't hold it in. She jumped over the counter, walking right in the direction of the serious pegasus, wanting him to see her.

He noticed. "Is that Rainbow Dash?" 

Red looked over to see the furious Dash, then turned back with a "well, now what?" frown. 

"You're not really Sweet Seeker, are you?" 

Dash saw an opening and rushed forward, grabbing the pegasus and pulling him inside the soda shop, bucking the door closed behind her. She pinned him to the floor. 

"Who do you think you are?!" Dash growled.

"Classified." 

"I don't care if it's classified, you-" 

"No, that's my name."

He looked over to the bar. "They're behind the counter, aren't they?" 

Far Out came out first. "Good guess, man." 

He regarded the unicorn for a second, and his neutral expression finally broke into a glower. "I don't like you." 

Truth Seeker came up next, then Scourge. He looked over to the disguised Red. 

"Changeling?" 

She reverted to her normal form. 

"Unfortunate." 

With everyone he had just moments before been described as gone accounted for, his attention turned back to Dash. 

"Where's the Intruder? We have witnesses of it with you." 

Dash almost told him she was behind the counter as well, but stopped herself and spun another tale. "She ran off! Zapped us with some kind of memory-wiping ray!" 

"Which part." 

"What?"

"Which part of your memory did it erase? The part where it ran off, or the part about the memory-wiping ray itself, an event you somehow remember?" 

"Uhhh."

Dash looked up, hoping the others to fill the holes in her story. They were likewise lost.

"Uhhhmm..."

The agent raised an eyebrow, and beads of sweat poured down Dash's face as her story fell apart. 

"Ermmmm...!" 





Starcrash hurled a tied, chained, blindfolded Classified into the stallion's bathroom. She slapped the door shut with her magic, then locked it, dusting off her hands. 

Dash tapped the door. "And that's why Applejack is the Element of Honesty." 

Turning to the rest, she took charge. "Alright. We obviously can't leave him locked in there forever, so we have to find it even faster now!" 

"Yes!" Truth Seeker screamed. "It's time to rock and roll! Space Rush is a go!" 

The bolted away from the group, kicking open the door and flying off. They looked to Red for an answer.

"She's gonna go to the library and try to find the base in government records. Meanwhile, I'll make them chase ghosts." 

With a green flash, Red transformed into a perfect imitation of Starcrash. She likewise bolted towards the door, looking both ways before running out into the alley. 

Dash looked to the dragon, and Far Out. "What about you two?" 

Scourge crossed his arms. "I'll set a forest on fire. Get their attention." 

"And I'll keep an eye on the suit in the bathroom, man!" 

Dash looked to Starcrash. "Guess that leaves us and your doodad there."

She held out a hoof. "C'mon, if I have it we'll cover way more ground." 

Starcrash clutched her beacon away from Dash. 

"I get it," Dash relented, "Don't want me to break it?" 

Starcrash pointed it around the soda shop until the beeping quickened in pace, then pointed out towards the more urban area of Las Pegasus. 

Dash rubbed her head. "Through the city? Even if I picked you up and flew over, ponies would see you." 

Starcrash ignored Dash's concerns, slowly creeping over to the door and peeking outside. The door led directly to a boardwalk street, one of many meant to accommodate creatures not gifted with cloud-walking. When the coast was clear, she motioned for Rainbow Dash to follow. 

She walked up behind the alien, still wondering what her plan was. "You realize you can't just run through the streets, right?" 

The alien didn't answer, instead studying the busy skyline of the tourist resort in one direction. She shook her head; obviously not the best route. Instead, her attention turned to an alley right in front of them, a gap between buildings where there was no wooden floor, only the white tuft of a cloud. 

She hopped out the door, running over to the alley and ducking between the buildings. Once her boots hit the cloud proper, it pressed down under her weight, the spell letting her walk on them still working. Dash followed, flying up beside Starcrash.

Starcrash brought out her gizmo once more, testing the direction she needed to go. She found the signal strongest below Rainbow Dash, below the clouds. Dash noticed this too and scratched her head. 

"I guess I could take you to the edge and fly you down. I dunno, you seem pretty heavy." 

Dash felt something being pushed into her hooves. She looked down, seeing the beacon sitting in her grasp. She looked up just in time to see Starcrash blasting a hole through the cloud and jumping through the gap, her arms spread wide. 

She reached out. "Wait! What are you doing?!"

Dash spun around in a panicked fit, checking to see if anyone was watching before she threw the beacon through the hole and took off after the falling Starcrash. By the time she'd caught up, she was already halfway to the ground. She'd changed her position from the initial fall, having turned upside-down and falling through the hair with her back to the ground, arms and legs crossed, watching Dash pursue her. 

When Dash caught up in the dive, she held out a limb. "Grab my hoof!" 

Instead of that, she instead pointed to the beacon Rainbow Dash had thrown in the hole as well, tumbling through the air a good distance behind them. Somehow, through the visor, Dash could see disappointment. 

Dash's eyes furrowed. "You care about that more than your life?!" 

Starcrash rolled over and spread her arms once more. This time, both her hands flared with her blue aura as she began to slow in her descent. Dash overshot her, making her stop midair and look up, dumbfounded. Was this how she'd survived the crash? 

The beacon shot past her. It took a moment for her to register what it was, and by then it was almost to the ground. She threw everything she had into the first beat of her wings, closing it on the prize as the ground loomed ever larger. Only feet from the ground was she able to snatch it.

She held it over her head, triumphant, then set it on the ground. Then she remembered the person she left behind and looked up to see Starcrash gradually drifting to the ground. 

As Stacrash approached the earth, the magic around her hands began to fade, and she brought both hands together in front of her, merging both auras into a single larger one. It flared with new energy, but even that began to fade as Starcrash's arms became droopy with fatigue. Like a popped bubble, her aura simply vanished. She resumed her freefall, her limbs scrambling wildly. 

Dash rushed back up into the air, just barely catching her in time. She hovered them both back to solid ground gradually, letting go when Starcrash's boots touched down. 

When Dash let go, Starcrash walked forward,  looking down at her hands. She squeezed her hands a few times, then tugged on one of her shoulders with an uncomfortable grunt, as if it ached. 

"Kinda hard without your spellbook, huh?"

She craned her head up to where she had fallen from and made an impressed whistle, then looked to her hand and balled it into a fist. She talked aloud to herself, her tone one of satisfaction. 

Dash walked over her, holding out the beacon. "You dropped this." 

Picking the box out of her hooves, Starcrash examined the beacon, then leveled it in the direction where she could get a single tone. It led into a forest, the trees closing into a deep mass of woods. 

Starcrash rolled both her hands out to the side, pointing at the forest in an 'after you' motion. Rainbow Dash led, Starcrash right behind her, constantly prodding at the device to maintain its lock. 

After following the signal for some time, they came to a sheer cliff. The device continued to make its monotone beep. Still, Dash's patience wore thin. She sat down, throwing up her hooves.

"We'll never find it at this rate!" she groaned. 

She spun around, reaching out the beacon. "If I flew around with that thing, we'd find your ship a lot faster!" 

Again Starcrash pulled away.

"So what if you're the only one who knows how it works? You need every bit of help you can get down here!" 

The alien pulled back at her outburst. If nothing else, she recognized Dash's frustrated tone, and looked to her invention. Her tense stance relaxed, and she began to bring the beacon back from her clutched grasp. 

Just when she seemed to be making a motion to give it to Dash, growls came from the brush. The noise spread all around them until it came from every direction of the woods. Green, glowing eyes appeared between the trees. They pushed forward, and their owners stepped into the light. 

A massive pack of birch timberwolves, their white bark set starkly against the greenery of the woods, began to push towards Starcrash and Rainbow Dash, surrounding them. 

As the circle tightened, Rainbow Dash looked to Starcrash, her stance ready for a fight and her aura glowing her free hand. She might be able to break a fall with her magic, but had shown no ability to fly on her own. She was stuck.

Dash's didn't consider leaving her for a second. She stomped the ground, teeth grit. "You want a fight?!" 

One timberwolf lunged at Rainbow Dash. She turned and bucked it straight in the nuzzle. Its wooden head was sent backward, splintering into the rest of its body. It shattered, a burst of branches and leaves falling to the ground. 

"How about now?!"

Dash's defeat of one of their comrade only emboldened the rest of the pack, and their snarling reached a fever pitch as they continued their advance. Two more attacked, jaws open. 

The first went for Starcrash, leaping at her head. She crouched down, jumping up and smashed the timberwolf apart with an uppercut.

The other ran at Dash. Instead of a kick, she instead sidestepped the creature, flying up and grabbing its haunches. Thrusting into the air, she backflipped and smashed the timberwolf into pieces with a flying suplex. 

With three of their wolves nothing more than wood, a few whimpered and backed away. Then a larger timberwolf, its bark chipped and partially covered in moss, came to the front of the pack, barking at the ones having second thoughts. The pack regained its resolve, and with a howl from the alpha, they all attacked at once. 

The fight devolved into a vulgar brawl. Claws and teeth came from everywhere, snapping and swiping to deliver a mortal blow. The few times she saw Starcrash in the melee, the alien was blasting timberwolves apart with her magic, along with pummeling them to pieces with her free fist. 

Dash bucked, wrestled, headbutted, and divebombed her way through the pack, several times just barely missing the jaws of an attacker. After an exhausting slog, the numbers began to fade, with many of the remaining wolves running back off into the woods, tails tucked between their legs. 

Sure the last was gone, she searched around for Starcrash, calling out her name. 

After a few cries, she saw a giant pile of branches begin to move and Starcrash emerge out of the refuse, dusting herself off. She flew up to her with spread wings, giddy from their victory. 

"That was awesome! Gimme hoof!" 

She held a hoof out. Starcrash seemed to know the gesture very well, making a fist and bumping it with her hoof, before pulling it away, waving her fingers. As she did, she saw something behind Rainbow Dash and jumped back with surprise. 

Before Dash could react as well, a row of wooden stakes bit down on her right wing, and she screamed in pain. The alpha had leaped onto her back, its large jaw shut tight. She tried to buck it off, but the alpha just dug in even harder.

Starcrash sprung forward, diving over the old timberwolf. She sprang up and kicked the timberwolf in its side, forcing it to let go and deal with her. The alpha spun its head around and snarled loudly, cut short when Starcrash seized the timberwolf by the throat.

Her hand, and the timberwolf, surged with magic. The alpha's ears went down and it whimpered, then exploded into a thousand tiny splinters. 

Pushing through her exhaustion, Starcrash ran over to the injured Rainbow Dash, laying on the ground and groaning. The timberwolf had bitten her hard, and a few teeth remained lodged in her wing. Starcrash reached out to touch it, but Dash stood up and pushed her away.

"It's okay, I've had way worse." 

She tucked in her wings, then winced as the injured one shot a sharp pain up her spine. She held it out from her body, frowning. "I don't think I'm using this one any time soon. So much for flying." 

Dash worked through the pain, then a new sensation reached her. A familiar sound in a constant cycle. Her eyes went to Starcrash's other hand, still gripping the beacon. Through the entire fight, she'd never let go of it or turned it off. Still carrying out its purpose, it quietly toned in the hard-fought silence of the forest. 

She chuckled, nodding her head at the gizmo. "Heh. You know you never let go of that?" 

The woman looked at the beacon. She squeezed it, having forgotten it was there as well. 

They began to snicker together. Before long, they were laughing. Hard. Especially Starcrash, who started losing herself in whoops of delight. It got to the point where fell backward on her behind, still cackling. She set the beacon down, struggling to take off her helmet between the rounds of snickers. When it was finally off her head, she tossed it aside, bringing both hands up to her mouth in a futile attempt to contain the laughter. 

Eventually they both settled down, their guffaws dying out into weak chortles.

When they finally stopped, the pain in her wing returned, making Dash cringe.

Starcrash took the beacon and sat up, helping her up as well. 

"You have adventures like this every time you crash?" 

She pointed to Rainbow Dash's wing, then towards the sky. 

"Yeah, can't exactly fly back with a busted wing. They still do balloon rides up there, though." 

Dash remembered who she was talking to, and struggled to explain it with words. "I'll go up," she explained, hoof towards the sky, "you follow me," pointing to herself. 





Starcrash looked to the beacon in her hand, then to the rainbow-maned horse, weighing her options. Attacked by fauna (flora?) right at the start of their mission, the day had quickly turned into a bust. The equine continued to point towards the sky, seemingly set on returning back to the clouded city to recover. She obviously couldn't fly now, so how else would they get back up there? 

She noticed something in the air, round and pink, floating high above the forest. The horse followed her gaze, seeing the same thing she did. A hot air balloon, lazily moving across the sky.

Starcrash pointed at the lighter-than-air craft. Was that what she meant? 

The horse neighed and nodded its head, the point understood.





"Sure they have ferries to Las Pegasus nearby, but how are you gonna get up there without being noticed?" Dash wondered aloud. 

Best figure it out on the way, she thought. No telling if some of those timberwolves would come back for a second round. She turned to the path they'd walked in from. 

"C'mon, let's just get back and plan our next move." 

After Starcrashed retrieved her helmet, they retraced their steps out of the forest. On the way, Starcrash stayed close to Dash's side, carefully pulling out the timberwolf teeth, Rainbow Dash going "ow" with each tooth plucked.

Soon they reached the edge of the forest where they'd first entered, below the cloud city. Time had flown from their time in the forest; the sun already setting and casting the sky in an orange haze. 

Dash sat down, pondering how they'd get a balloon. She almost considered trying to ask Starcrash to shoot up some kind of magical firework to flag one down, but even if she understood her, that'd only bring them unwanted attention. As she considered her options, they both noticed a black column of smoke rising on the horizon. Several dots in the sky were pushing dark clouds towards the plume, almost certainly firefighter ponies moving to kill the blaze. A few stray ones strafed around the smoke in military formation, moving in straight lines. General Watcher's ponies? 

"Well, crud," Rainbow Dash commented, "guess there's a wildfire nearby. Wonder what could have sta-" 

She interrupted herself, remembering what Scourge had said before they'd left. "Ooooooh." 

A larger speck in the sky appeared over the trees, moving towards them. It was Scourge, smoke pouring from his nostrils. He noticed Dash and Starcrash at the edge of the forest, and slowly came into a landing, plopping himself in front of the two with a hefty landing. 

Dash's eyes moved from the smoke to the dragon. "They didn't see you, right?" 

"I'm hard to miss. But no." 

Scourge noticed Dash's injured wing. "Timberwolves?" 

"We got jumped. Mind helping us back up to the soda shop?" 

"Hm. I dunno. What's in it for me?" 

"You! You greedy-" 

"Just kidding."

He held out a claw. Dash hesitantly walked over, letting him grab her hoof. He suddenly pulled her in, arm wrapping around her torso. With one mighty push from his wings, he lifted into the air. 

With Dash in his clutches, he motioned for Stardash to come over as well, pointing up towards the cloud city. She hesitantly approached, holding out a hand. He grabbed it and suddenly took off. The beacon she had been holding in the other hand was forced from her grip, tumbling to the ground and breaking apart in a mess of circuits and cheap metal. 

In a single motion, she brought up her hand and smacked the visor of her helmet, dragging in downwards.

The hole she'd made through the cloud before was long gone. Scourge flew through the bottom of the featureless cloud anyway, soaring into the alley from where they'd started. He let both of them go, then sat down himself. 

Without a word, he stepped towards the soda shop, the closed sign still showing on the front door. He held the door open when he entered, giving the two of them the opportunity to check for passersby before running into the building. 

Once inside, Dash took two steps and then splayed out on the floor. "What a day." 

Scourge walked away, saying he was headed to the War Room to tune up some radios. 

Dash noticed the three of them weren't alone in the soda shop. Far Out was at the counter, asleep, with a dozen empty smoothie glasses littering the table, snoring through his sugar coma. Truth Seeker was also present at "their" booth with a giant stack of books and files. At the moment, she was scanning some ancient parchment through her magnifier. 

She realized they were there, looking up from her studied to see the disheveled pair. "Oh my gosh!" 

Running over, she immediately slid up beside Dash and cradled her injured wing. "What happened?!" 

"We ran into a bunch of timberwolves in the woods. We showed 'em who's boss, though." 

"I knew you two shouldn't have looked for the base alone! Next time, we're all going together!" 

Dash pushed Truth Seeker's hoof away. "Seriously. I'm fine. I'll be flying by tomorrow." 

"Even if that were true, we can't just leave it untreated!"

She looked over to the napping unicorn on the counter, drool pooling around his mouth. "Far Out! Get the first aid kit!" 

Still asleep, Far Out somehow lifted a white box with a red cross on it from behind the counter with his magic, floating it other and plopping it on the booth table. 

Truth Seeker walked back over walked back over to her booth. Dash and Starcrash joined her. Starcrash seemed to understand the box's purpose, opening it and withdrawing the gauze bandages and disinfectant. Dash complained, but otherwise stood still as her nurse applied the medicine and carefully wrapped her wing. 

"So," Dash asked, "where'd you get all those books?" 

Content with Dash's medical attention, she cracked open one of the books at a green bookmark, scanning it. "The library. The head librarian knows me really well. Keeps trying to get me into literature." 

"Find anything about the base we're looking for?"

"Maybe?" 

She pulled another thick book off a tower of other works, throwing it open and pointing to the page. 

"Here. Official Equestrian Allocations. A while back, then-Colonel Watcher got a hugely oversized budget from a bureaucratic error, and apparently never told anypony about it. Next year, he lists his division's main expenses as construction and stockpiling herbicides." 

"Herbicides?" Dash asked.

"Stuff that gets rid of weeds. Dunno why he'd need that, though. Since the base is almost certainly buried underground, why would he be worried about some unruly plants?" 

Dash's wing suddenly began to ache more intensely. The pain on her wing came with the memory of the bite. Revelation hit her. 

"Truth Seeker, what about some really unruly plants?" 

"Huh?" 

Dash wiggled her bandaged wing. 

Epiphany washed over Truth Seeker's face as well. "Oh my gosh. The Wild Weald! They're right below us!"

Another book came crashing down, opening to a map of the forest below the city, with one part of it outlined in white. "And here's a map that shows conservation areas. Look at this: there's only one for timberwolves. Kind of clever, when you think about it. Your own personal security system around your base and all you have to do is spray around if they get uppity. And wouldn't you know it, the area's "officially" "under protection" by Celestia herself. Wonder who the general had to threaten to make that happen."

Rainbow Dash leaned into the map, then sat back in a huff. "Darn! We were right on top of them!" 

"Well, we can find them really fast now with Starcrash's beacon, right?" 

Dash smiled nervously.

"It broke, didn't it?"

"She dropped it when Scourge flew us back up." 

"Well, it's not that big of an area." 

Finding the base had entered the realm of the possible. A new concern entered Dash's thoughts. "So when we find this place, how exactly are we going to get in? I don't see them opening the front door for us."

Truth Seeker frowned. "And I think Classified was being honest about him not knowing where the base was when we were tying him up. I'm gonna keep doing research. Luckily I managed to snag 'B&E: The Art of Trespassing' at the library, so I'm gonna re-read that." 

"Re-read?"

"It's a primer, but still really good. Mom says checking out books like that will get me on some kind of list, but joke's on her, I'm already on every one." 

She returned to her cross-referencing, determined to find some passage that was their key inside the base. 

Dash remembered their guest in the bathroom and walked over to the restroom door to unlock it. 

She opened the door.

Still tied and sitting inside was Classified. "I'm thirsty." 

"Too bad." 

She slammed the door. 

The bell above the front door jingled. Everyone in the room turned to see a tall, black, red-maned alicorn stumble into the soda shop. They kept walking as everyone stared at them, just barely able to bring themselves near the booth before collapsing. 

A green fire enveloped them, revealing a very exhausted Reduviidae. 

Truth Seeker immediately abandoned her research and ran over to her friend. "Red! You okay?"

"I'm fine," she groused, "just tired." 

"I have to ask: what disguise was that? " 

Red squinted with an embarrassed sulk. "It was hard keeping the general's ponies occupied once they realized I wasn't Starcrash. I had to...improvise." 

She reached for something under her wings. A small, paper card appeared in her grasp, showing the picture of a pony in uniform.

"Did manage to snatch this off one of the general's higher goons though." 

"An ID card!" Truth Seeker declared. "You can use that to sneak inside!" 

The changeling gave a dismissive wave. "Sure, but later. I stirred up the hive out there," she stated, tucking it back under her carapace. 

Scourge leaned out of the War Room, one headphone pressed to the side of his head. "Guys? Think you're gonna wanna hear this." 

He held out his headphones, turning a dial on the side of the radio. The volume became loud enough to fill the room, and they all recoiled at the sound of General Watcher's gravelly, annoyed voice. 

"-effects unknown, but in the interest of public health and to reduce the effects of exposure, I am instituting an early curfew, effective today. Repeat, a curfew will go into effect at 8pm, today. Fail to comply at the peril of arrest and your own health."

The message repeated, spinning a lie about some kind of magical contamination nearby. 

"What a bale of hay!" Dash hollered. "Now we can't even go out at night!" 

Truth Seeker bounced in her seat. "Oh! I can still make it to the library! I forgot a book we need!" 

She vaulted from the booth. Starcrash reached out to her, but by then she was already out the door. 

Red, her head still down the table, assured them. "She's memorized the library. She'll be back in twenty minutes." 





If there was an upside to Truth Seeker working at her mom's soda shop, it was that the library was right down the street. So many hours she'd spent there, uncovering the lies in plain sight. She'd even sent her findings to Celestia, but never received a reply. 

Yet here she was, trying to help an alien that nobody outside her small circle would even truly acknowledge existed. What proof would she really have after this was all over? She put those thoughts out of her mind. She couldn't afford to just be a dot-connecting shut-in scholar now; a hero and a visitor from space depended on her, and her friends. 

She turned a corner, Las Pegasus' library coming into view. Red's theft of the ID Card had given her an idea to copy it and make one for each of them, but she wouldn't be able to do that without a guidebook. A guidebook on Row 30, Shelf B, twenty-seven books from the left, right next to that green book that she wouldn't dignify with a name. 

The streets were already barren, and the skies unusually quiet. What ponies she did see were whispering among themselves in hushed tones, hurrying back to their homes to avoid the general's wrath. After so many years of waiting, having his target pulled away from him by a bunch of kids had probably sent him right over the deep end. He couldn't keep this up forever; word of his crackdown would eventually reach Canterlot. 

But by then? If they didn't get Starcrash home, there was no telling what damage General Watcher could do. 

She passed by an alley, paying it no heed until she felt herself move against her will. A green aura had surrounded her and yanked her into the darkness before she could scream. 

Forced to the cloudy ground, she tried to call for help, but her mouth was slammed shut by a white aura. 

Out of the darkness stepped two unicorns, their horns casting the magic keeping her in place. A larger shadow loomed behind them, and her heart nearly stopped. 

From the darkness stepped General Stalwart Watcher, his eyes hidden and his jaw clenched.

"You traitors have been giving me the run-around for a while." 

She could almost hear the creaks as his scowl worked itself into a smug smirk.

"Got you now, though." 





The tension had grown with the darkness outside. It had been well over an hour since Truth Seeker left; the curfew was due to go in effect any minute. 

Starcrash and Scourge kept themselves occupied at the booth. She'd been trying to build another one of the beacons out of more junk, but only succeeded in gutting more electronic equipment. Dash was exercising her injured wing; gaining confidence that it'd only leave a bad bruise. 

That left Red and Far Out at the soda shop's bar.

Red slammed back a lime shake and wiped the froth from her mouth. "I don't like it. She should have been back by now." 

"I dunno, man. Maybe she lost her library card?" 

Rainbow Dash stretched, bringing her wings back to her sides. "I'd go look for her, but I'm kinda  a wanted criminal right now." 

A ding above the door announced a visitor. 

Truth Seeker slowly walked in, head hung low. 

Red hopped off her stool as soon as she saw her. 

"Truth! What took you so long?" 

The pegasus didn't say anything, her face still facing the ground. Something was wrong. 

Dash joined Red's concern. "Truth Seeker? You okay?" 

Truth Seeker brought her head up, tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry." 

The words hung in the air. 

Dash's gut lurched, and she knew.

"Get down!" she ordered. She threw herself at the floor, covering her head. A beam of energy shot through one of the windows where she'd just been, blowing a wide hole through the glass and shutters. Shrieking through the air, it hit Far Out right in the head, knocking him back against the smoothie machine. He tumbled to the floor, the machine kicking to life and covering him in strawberry and lime slush.

Another array of bolts blasted through the front door above Truth Seeker's head, hitting Scourge in the back, his radio throwing out sparks. He fell out of the booth, equally disabled. Starcrash jumped from the booth and rolled to the floor beside Rainbow Dash. 

Red's wings spread and she tried to fly out one of the windows, making it only halfway out before being forcefully thrown backward, hard, against the bar. She struggled to get back up, then fell limp.

In flew the general from the destroyed window, his shadowed glare looking down on all of them. Soldier ponies of all tribes began to pour into the soda shop, their weapons and magic ready to back their leader up. 

Starcrash rose to challenge them, her hands alight. As she threw back one hand to sling a spell, the general threw a collar at her neck. It met its intended target and locked on. For a moment nothing happened, and then Starcrash lit up with white light as electricity surged through her. She fell face-first.

Dash ran over, catching her. 

She glared at Truth Seeker. "What did you do?!"

The pegasus gave no answer, cowering away as the general approached her and her fallen friend. She could just barely make out the general's eyes under his cap, bearing down in them with hateful regard.

"How?" was the only thing Dash could ask. 

"Your friend was careless. Sure, they could wear some little disguises in your big escape, but that didn't stop me from just checking the local costume store to see who'd bought a bunch of ninja costumes recently. That's the thing I like about these suburbs: everypony knows everypony. The shopkeep was more than happy to give me Ms. Seeker's name. Apparently, her activities are pretty well known around here!" 

"Once I had her name, it was just a matter of a little applied pressure to get her into the streets," the general began to boast, "And the curfew worked with flying colors. Once I had her, all I had to do was explain the consequences if she didn't cooperate. Consequences that would affect many ponies. Such has herself. Or maybe, her friends." 

He looked over to Truth Seeker, and the tiniest victorious smile emerged on his lips. "Or somepony even more important." 

"You don't understand!" Dash tried to reason, "Starcrash isn't a threat! She just wants to go home!" 

His smile vanished. "I don't disagree. She wants to go home. To what? To bring more of her kind her? To blot out the skies with their fleets? I'd expect a Wonderbolt to know better than anyone about protecting Equestria. If you even are her." 

He turned away, done with the conversation. He walked towards the door, but not before giving an order to one of his officers.

"Take these traitors into custody. Including Rainbow Dash and Ms. Seeker." 

"But!" Truth Seeker plead, "You said-" 

He ignored her. 

Dash's muscles tensed. She didn't know how, but she'd fight her way through! She spread her wings, ready to take every pony in the room on by herself. 

Several soldiers brought up their horns to zap her. She somersaulted up, the bolts sizzling under her. Zipping to the side, she jumped onto the counter, snatching up the napkin dispensers and throwing it into the formation. It clonked off one unicorn's head, sending him to the ground.

She kept up the pressure. Backflipping, she touched down at the back of the counter, deftly dodging a few more bolts. She acquired a new set of weapons: ketchup and mustard bottles. Using all her might, she squeezed out the entire contents at once, a thick stream of red and yellow streaking forward and blinding many of the soldiers, their bolts going off target. When empty, she tossed both of them at the general, who simply ducked. 

He'd had enough. "You can't hit her! Just grab her!" 

His soldiers obeyed, rushing forward to meet her head on. She sprung from the counter, turning her hind legs to the first pegasus to get within range, bucking the air out of him. He fell flat, but soon two more took his place, jumping forward with limbs spread. She bowed, letting the two above, and then launched them into the air with her back. They spun into the air, ascending to the ceiling before crashing back down. Before they hit the floor, Dash turned to face them and threw her hooves forward, lobbing them both to the back of the soda shop. They smashed through the door of the War Room, and the sound of a table flipping over followed. 

Another unicorn appeared over her shoulder. He reached to seize her, but tripped when Dash threw a hoof in front of his. He fell forward, hitting the floor. 

Two more soldiers remained, a unicorn and a pegasus; all the others were out cold or digging condiments out of there eyes. They approached warily, but Dash wouldn't give them the opportunity to strike. In two bounds, she hopped onto the counter, and then jumped at her two attackers, one leg tucked into the other, elbow out, screaming. Her wrestling move connected, body falling on the unicorn and her elbow hitting the pegasus. They all slammed to the ground; Rainbow Dash the only one to rise from the feat. 

She reared up, beating her chest. "Is that all you got, brass shoes?!" 

The general strode towards her, none-too-pleased. "Dunno how you know my grandfather's name, but who knows what that alien's been putting into your brain." 

Despite her situation, she faked a boastful laugh. "Just give it up! I took care of all your henchponies!" 

"Yes, you did," he accepted, stopping face-to-face with his foe. "Now you have to deal with me." 

"You? Some desk jockey? I bet you can't even-" 

General Watcher threw one of his large hooves at her with Wonderboltlike speed, crashing into her face before she could react. She stumbled backward, stars swirling in her vision. The world began to darken around her. 

She collected enough of her senses to ask a single question. "Bluh?"

"I didn't get this far by being slow. Goodnight, Dash." 

She toppled down, her vision going black.